“Why are you talking like that?” I’d asked him, forcing a smile to mask the unease creeping into my chest. Terrence wasn’t one for melodrama, and yet there was a gravity in his words that made the room feel smaller, the air thicker.
“I just want you to be safe,” he replied, his voice steady but eyes clouded with an unspoken worry. “Promise me you’ll trust your instincts. Promise me you’ll take care of yourself, even if I’m not there.”
I had nodded, dismissing his words as merely precautionary. After all, we were young, healthy, and had our whole lives ahead of us—or so I thought. But now, standing on the lawn with my belongings scattered like debris after a storm, I realized how much he had wanted to protect me from the vultures that now circled.
